Hamburg - July 8-9

Back on a plane after 2 surreal weeks and vague memories of traveling through Hamburg after hearing the news about my dad. Left the heat in boston for cooler temps and 10pm sunsets, retrieved a bag at the airport, Bertha from Jason's coworker Marvin's house and biked to the hip Motel One Hamburg-Fleetinsel.  Beautiful city, lots of water and fancy houses. Bike paths everywhere but often on sidewalks. Good Turkish mixed grill dinner. 15 miles.

For me, being in Germany and especially hearing German or seeing police, is disconcerting. Too much history there; thankfully no "free Palestine" (or worse) signs or encampments here. Generally germany does good job of acknowleding the past, including stolpersteine to mark homes/businesses of Jews killed in ww2. After coffee, walked around neustadt (new city) including ruins of a synagogue, planten un blumen park and took guruwalk tour of altstadt. Second largest city in Germany was mostly burned in great fire (every European city has one) of 1842 and flattened/fire-stormed in WW2 in operation Gomorrah, as it had industrial port and radar. After a nap, rode west along north shore of the tidal elbe (unique beach views!), nice homes and path to blankenese. Also preview run of tomorrow's alter elbtunnel heading south. Portugese dinner.  17 miles, 21.5k steps. Tomorrow I ride.